I breezed through this book! It was a wild, captivating, high-octane techno-thriller ride that kept me engrossed all the way through, but - admittedly - I was a bit disappointed by the ending and ended up questioning a lot of the iffy plot twists and convenient coincidences scattered throughout the plot.
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Imagine a society straight from the world of Black Mirror show, where fully autonomous cars have overtaken the streets and the passengers no longer have any control over the stirring wheel (aside from setting the destination). Now, imagine a situation in which a hacker breaks into the system of multiple cars, takes complete control of the vehicles and sets their destination to a crash point outside of the city, all the while broadcasting the passengers live on the internet, asking people to vote on who should be the sole survivor, the one person whose life will be spared.
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I absolutely loved the premise of the book, and how the storyline touched on so many issues - from social aspects of the voting process, to the value of human life vs convenience of all and all the little things in between. The book examines many things, from social prejudices to the quickness in which we judge people based only on a handful of information, but I have to admit, I thought some of these things could have been handled with a tad bit more sensitivity and a tad less shock value.
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I really liked the part of the book that was taking place in the self-driving cars and the jurors office, but the ending felt weird too me. I didn’t think it was necessary to include some of the twists there, and some in particular felt extra far fetched.
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If not for the ending, I would have given this book a solid 5 star rating. Still, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read for me, I had a ton of fun with it and it kept me at the edge of my seat!

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

Well, now I have a new fear. This book was crazy! Some of the characters I wanted justice to serve them and others I really wanted some mercy. Tech is so scary when other lives are at stake.

Eight people get into their autonomous (completely out of the driver's control) cars one morning. Within minutes, the vehicle has been taken over by an entity identified as "the Hacker" who delivers this terrifying message: "The only thing you need to know at this point is that two hours and thirty minutes from now, it is highly likely that you will be dead." The writing was excellent and I was racing through the pages, unable to put this book down from the moment I opened it, speeding to the explosive conclusion and left pondering all the ramifications.

John Marrs writes some of the best thrillers I have ever read, and The Passengers is no exception! There are eight self-driven cars that are on a collision course and none of the people within the cars no what's coming. Who will live? Who will die? They systems that run the self-driven cars has been hacked, but by who? And why? This book was an insanely intense ride that kept my heart pumping all the way to the very end!

In a future that seems not impossible in the next twenty to thirty years, driver-less cars have become the norm in the U.K. Pushed through and supported by the government, roads and infrastructure has been renovated to support and make electric, driver-less cars the cost effective option for citizens. But what happens when a driver-less car is involved in an accident? Who's at fault?

Libby is finding that out. Never a supporter of the driver-less car movement after being a witness to a terrible accident during their initial inception, Libby is forced into jury duty for the committee organized to decide who is at fault during a Level 5 (driver-less) car accident anyways. Forced to spend a week locked away and judging one incident after another, she is finding herself having trouble standing her own under the peer-pressure of the rest of the panel, even though she knows they're wrong.

When proceedings are interrupted by late breaking news, no one expected the following disaster. Eight unhackable Level 5 vehicles have been hacked and the lives of the passengers have been threatened and broadcast on every social media platform available. Libby and the rest of the panel now find themselves at the center of a hostage situation where the Hacker is forcing them to choose who lives and dies and airing everyone's secrets on live television. Honesty is the only acceptable answer and the repercussions mean someone's life.

What drew me to this story was the idea of driver-less cars and how they can be hacked for personal gain. What I found myself staying for was the conspiracy and ultimate moral of this story. John Marr's does an amazing job of creating characters that draw you in and a crisis situation that anyone could relate too. An excellent story!

I edge of your seat thriller than left me wanting more. With advances in technology coming so quickly, life can seem daunting. Enter the Passengers, a worst case scenario. If you're looking for something with a dystopian near future feel, give this a go.

Great thriller with mostly unlikable characters and unexpected avenues. It seems readers have few to characters to cheer for, as the plot moves a long. I listened to the finished audiobook and the sound effects, social media component, and cast of characters were executed superbly. A must read for those who like to see how technology could impact our future while staying safely in the present.

Thank you for the opportunity to read the e-galley. Reviews and ratings are my own.

A fast-paced thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat! Sometimes advancements in technology can seem pretty scary! I would read this author again.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Timely and fast paced near-future thriller. An excellent addition to all general fiction collections

A nonstop thrill ride from beginning to end. A Techno-Thriller to beat all Techno-Thrillers! My first John Marrs novel gets two very solid thumbs up.

The premise of The Passengers intrigued me from the start. It sounds like it will be The Purge but set in a Tesla. Surprisingly enough, it is actually more like The Hunger Games but set in a Tesla and I was so down for that!

In a near-future U.K., Level 5 autonomous vehicles are now the law of land. Said to make personal travel completely safe, that isn't necessarily the case. Situations are still going to arise where an accident is imminent, but without a human to control the vehicle, what will happen if you are to say, hit a grandmother crossing the street, versus crash head on into another vehicle carrying the country's most loved football star?

The vehicle, or more accurately, the computer controlling the vehicle will have to come to a decision. A sort of cost-benefit analysis for the greater good of society.

We meet eight individuals, all with one thing in common: they are getting into their autonomous cars around the same time, on the same day. After settled in, the doors lock and a mysterious voice pumps through the car speakers telling them, their plans have changed and in just a few hours, they will all be dead.

Their collective plight is broadcast across all media outlets nationwide. The citizens of the country get to vote for one passenger to be the sole survivor.

Who will it be?

This whole story was so interesting. The commentary on our future with tech, the moral issues our dependence upon such technologies will bring about, as well as the potentially harmful nature of social media, was all spectacularly done. There was never a moment while reading this that I felt bored, or that details were inconsequential to the story. It was so well crafted.

This may be my first John Marrs, but it certainly will not be my last!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley and NetGalley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity and had a wonderful time with it.

This fast-paced thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat through all the twists and turns, while passengers are trapped inside their hijacked self-driving cars and being driven toward certain death. It will make you rethink how much technology you’re willing to use for “convenience” sake.

What a crazy and wild ride this book was 🙌🏼 The Passengers is very different from the thrillers I typically go for, but I’m so glad that I stepped a little out of my comfort zone with this one because I thoroughly enjoyed it!⁣⁣
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This book is the definition of a fast-paced thriller with tons of twists and turns. There were so many insane and shocking moments that I truly never wanted to stop reading. Because the premise is super unique, it was even harder for me to guess which direction the plot was going to go and that made my reading experience all the more fun. I also really enjoyed the author’s writing style and his ability to make so many POVs work extremely well. Each change of POV really enhanced the story and kept it moving along at an incredibly fast pace, so I didn’t have any trouble keeping track of all the characters. ⁣⁣
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While I did really enjoy this book, I had some issues with it as well. One of the main issues I had was that I found this book to be overly dramatic at times and it got a little cliché towards the last portion of the book. I also thought the last 50 pages or so were VERY slow compared to the rest of the book and the ending just didn’t satisfy me. Lastly, I didn’t quite enjoy how much social commentary was in this book. I’m not used to my thrillers being political in any way and while I’m okay with a little bit of it, this book had way too much for my liking.⁣⁣
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Overall, I would definitely recommend this one to you guys! This book is extremely entertaining and a solid fast-paced thriller with some sci-fi elements ☠️🚗⁣⁣
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John Marrs shows the true danger and fear behind driver-less cars:

Self driving cars have been made standard in the UK, you can no longer drive yourself. These vehicles have been found more safe and reliable than regular vehicles. Everyone has been assured that they are completely safe and even safer when the act of driving is taken out of their hands. But then eight people enter into driver-less cars for possible their last time. Six were chosen, two were random and their vehicles have been hacked. They are now heading to the same destination, where only one individual gets to survive and who gets to decide who survives? The public of course as the whole event is broadcast world wide and everyone's secrets are about to be exposed.

Well what a trip (pun intended), to the not so distant future. This book has you go through so many emotions over the span of a two and a half hour car ride it is insane. I really enjoyed this book, it was fast paced due to the time constraints on the cars, therefore, the plot has to fast as well. This book will have you asking yourself who would you choose to die? Would you play the Hacker's game? It was almost like you were participating in the book. And oh reveal after reveal, twist after twist, its really hard to predict what is going to happen next, which I really enjoyed. I was able to figure some of it out, but not even close to all of it, which makes this book even better in my opinion.

You don't really get to know any of the characters that well even the main ones, you just get glimpses of who they are, especially the passengers in the cars. This is completely deliberate by Marrs as he wants you/the characters within the book to choose based upon the facts that the Hacker presents. However, when it comes to Libby we get a bit more character development as we not only see her in this snapshot of time but also some of her history with driver-less cars but overall I don't think she is completely fleshed out as a character. There is one character that I absolutely despised was the social media expert, all he cared about was what was on twitter or what hashtag was trending. Honestly, I feel like he is the future of some people where all they care about it the online aspect and not even acknowledging that there are people in real life. His nonchalance when people are killed was just crazy to me, but all he saw was where the next trend was heading. I think this was also a deliberate character creation by Marrs, as a way of saying look where we're heading now.

One thing that puzzled me was why were the six chosen, there were eight people but two were random taxi cabs so those were left up to fate. I mean we all have some sort of skeleton in our closet, maybe not to the extreme of the people shown here, by how and why did he choose them. I mean there are quite a few factors that the Hacker would have had to predict in order to pull all of this off on this specific day. I get that we put lots of things on social media and it is only going to grow but I do not think he could have predicted certain events that swayed people for and against a person in the vehicle. So on that front a few things do not really add up.

Not going to lie, I liked the idea of driver-less cars before I read this book, now they scare the crap out of me. Nope, No Thank You, I will continue to drive myself thanks. See this is how this book has affected me. This is the first book by Marrs that I have read and it will not be the last.

Enjoy!!!

John Marrs weaves a tale of caution while winding us through the fate of 8 hijacked driver-less cars. Set in the near distant future, this book tackles the what-ifs and could-bes if the world adopts (mandates) a driver-less car system. This isn't your normal thriller, sure it has explosions and drama, but it also has deeper questions that the author makes the reader think about,

Why did I not read this book earlier?! I enjoyed it immensely! What a wild ride.

Part 1 was definitely character introductions. At first I was overwhelmed with how many there are-I had the audiobook to read along with and it definitely helped that it was full cast.

This one was definitely a binge able and 'lighter thriller' for me. All though, hijacked driverless cars, violent deaths and dark secrets are not really considered 'light'.

The characters had me all over the place. One minute I hated them then the next I was rooting for them. Usually, I find some characteristic in the MC that I can relate with, but with Libby I didn't really.

I read this in one weekend! While it probably isn't my absolute favorite book, it was entertaining.

It would make an awesome and thrilling movie! Think of the movies Speed, i-Robot and Smart House combined.

4.5 Stars

'The Passengers' is a fast paced thriller that uses common technology we use almost daily against us and then demands we make the hardest decision of all - who to save and who to kill. I haven't read any of the author's other books before going into this one and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The description sounded really intriguing and I knew there was definite potential for a great story. I was not disappointed in the least - it was actually the opposite. This is a genre bending novel that not only makes the reader think about our daily use and increasing dependency on technology but also on greater ethical questions. I found it to be exhilarating, terrifying, thought provoking, and truly gripping.

I don't do spoilers in my reviews, so it's going to be really hard to say basically anything about the plot that isn't mentioned in the description without giving anything away. There are several characters involved in the story - the people in their cars who have been chosen to participate in this sick "game" and also the people on the outside who are trying to figure out what's happening and shut it down - namely a woman named Libby, who we quickly learn isn't completely separate from what's happening and the people involved. We get small but insightful snippets of each "Passenger" throughout the novel, so bit by bit we can start to piece together their lives and situations. On top of getting to know all of the characters better and learning more about this deadly game that's being played - we start getting hit with the good stuff. Everything in these people's closets is being exposed - secrets, lies, and any other dirt that can be found. On top of all of these revelations, the author introduces twist after twist into the plot - to the point where you have absolutely no idea what's going to come to light or what might happen next. This last part had me completely invested in the story and I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. I had to know what was going to happen next and what was going to be exposed. I was reading as quickly as I could without missing anything and the book was over before I knew it.

Normally, my preferred writing style is first person point of view for several reasons. However, with this many main and major characters, it was best that the author used the third person POV. We still get to know each of them and everything in their lives, but it doesn't become overwhelming or confusing because of the author's writing style. It was a great balance to the whirlwind story unfolding in front of us and I don't think it could've been done any better. I honestly didn't have any expectations going into this book and it blew me away and left me thinking about a lot of serious topics long after I had finished the last page. I'm definitely going to be checking out the author's other books now. I very highly recommend this novel for fans of science fiction, contemporary fiction, suspense, mystery, thriller, action and adventure, and those looking for something different from what else is out there right now.

First, let me thank netgalley and the publishers for approving my request for an early release of this book. All reviews of my netgalley books can be found on goodreads and youtube. Please be sure to check out the links attached.

This book was unique and thrilling. I found myself anxious, in a good way, most of the time. I don’t think what happened was overly realistic. However, it was interesting enough where that didn’t really matter.

I received a free e-copy of the Passengers by John Marrs from NetGalley for my honest review.

Eight passengers that are in eight separate driverless cars. Each driver with their own secrets but one thing they all have in common is that none of them make it to their desired destination. The drivers can't do anything; brake, steer, open a window or even a door. Someone else has taken over the entire vehicle and in 2 1/2 hours all 8 cars will collide head on. A hacker is in control and the jury is "we the people" who get to decide all of the drivers fate. Who will live and who will die?